Friday Photo

During my wandering nomadic years, I had the opportunity to hike many of the slot canyons in the southwest including the famous Antelope Canyons near Page Arizona. Of all the slot canyon photos in my archives, this is the best descriptive photo of a slot canyon.

This slot canyon is on the Calcite Mine hike near Borrego Springs California.

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The photo is "right time right place" from my archives of 2008.

Friends in Ukraine?

As I was viewing my blog site, I noted the most popular posts from the past week included a post written three years ago: We Are Going To Die.

I rarely check the stats for my blog site. Seeing that old post being in the popular list for the past week, my curiosity drove me to find out more about popular posts on my blog. That post was also in the "all time" list of posts on my Blogger site. The all time -- far in the lead -- most popular post was Two Story Home On Wheels.

The stat page also lists the country viewing pages on my blog. The United States is at the top of the list. Whenever I have checked that list in the past, Canada was in second place. In the past weeks, Canada appears after Ukraine and Russia. Hmm.

Could the accesses be nothing more than an internet robot based in the Ukraine. Could be.

Or my Wandrin blog has interested readers in Ukraine. :-))

Friday Photo

Sunset on the south rim of the Grand Canyon

From 2003 Wandrin photo archives

Getting Directions

Friday Photo

This boat had been marooned and left in the tidal flats of Point Reyes, California. The scene is popular for artists and photographers. I have seen the boat in a water color painting in a gallery. I am not the first photographer to happen on this scene. When I attended a photo club meeting in Portland Oregon, one of the photos shared was that same boat.
 
The Petaluma Elks Lodge was where Wandrin Wagon was parked in 2007 as I explored the area -- including a day trip into San Francisco.  

Morning Back LIt Desert

This morning's hike in Saguaro East NP provided some back lit desert scenery.

Check out the halo around the saguaros as a result of light shining through the spines.

Slippery rock surfaces reflects the early morning sun.

The eye doesn't see what the camera lens captures as a rainbow of colors.

No snakes. No rabbits. No deer. Just an early morning photo hike.

Friday Photo

“There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere."
― Edward Abbey

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Photo is at The Wave at Coyote Buttes.

Home Size Growth

The U.S. Census Bureau has been collecting detailed information on household size since 1940 and tracking certain characteristics of houses since 1963. Data on houses were collected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies from 1940 to 1963. Average household size in the United States has dropped steadily from 3.67 members in 1940 to 2.62 in 2002. The average size of new houses increased from about 1,100 ft2 (100 m2) in the 1940s and 1950s to 2,340 ft2 (217 m2) in 2002. Factoring together the family size and house size statistics, we find that in 1950 houses were built with about 290 square feet (27 m2) per family member, whereas in 2003 houses provided 893 square feet (83 m2) per family member (NAHB 2003) -- a factor of 3 increase.

Other trends in American single-family housing have been similar. In 1967, for example, 48% of new single-family houses had garages for two or more cars; by 2002, that figure had jumped to 82%. In 1975, 20% of new single-family houses had 2.5 or more bathrooms; by 2002, that figure had increased to 55%. In 1975, 46% of new houses had central air conditioning; by 2002, 87% had it.

Quoted from the Small is Beautiful: U.S. House Size, Resource Use, and the Environment

Sunday Hike

Daughter Vanita was in town this past weekend. Vanita lives in San Diego. When she isn't working, she mountain bikes. She hikes. She hiked Mt. Whitney this past summer. I certainly am not in her league. I doubt I ever was that fit. So why were we hiking together. The hike was quality time to chat about life and living.

This trail was hardly a challenge for Vanita. She wasn't panting. Then there was the old guy on this journey. He was moving a bit slower. That's okay. He is 30+ years older.

When I had stopped at another uphill slug, Vanita went on ahead without me. That gave me a few minutes to get a selfie with the Catalinas in the background. Soon I continued up the trail. We met at a switchback. Soon we were back at the trail head. She has already planned her next hike when she is in Tucson: Finger Rock.

After a Starbucks chat, I wished her the best as she prepared to return to San Diego. 

St. Phillips Square farmers market was on my way home where I stopped for grass raised pork and chicken. Yum!

Hiking and grass raised meats. It was a great Sunday.

Take Time...

When going through the archives of my nomadic traveling, I found this photo of a marker at Montezuma Castle National Monument. When I visited many years ago, I was camped at Cottonwood Arizona.

There is no credit given for the source of the words. When I searched the internet, I found no matches.

Nature has time. Lots of it. Nature tolerates the human existence. When these humans go extinct, Nature will merely shrug and a million years later there will be little evidence of humans passing through.

Nature tolerates our brief existence on the planet earth.

Consumerism

“The purpose of a consumer society is not the fulfilment of needs, but the creation of wants. In this way, the contemporary definition of prosperity is essentially synonymous with dissatisfaction.”

Photo and quote from Going Around Places

Pillsbury Doughboy Obituary

My breakfast most every morning is blueberries and full fat plain yogurt.  With the iPad in front of me as I eat, I read the obituaries of northeastern Wisconsin newspapers. The search is for entries to fill out dead ends in my genealogical data base.

The first obits read are in the Green Bay Press-Gazette. The second entry in the list was:

"Doughboy, Pillsbury, 100, Minneapolis   Minnehaha Funeral Home"

I continued reading the obits from other newspapers. Returning to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, I saved the link for the Pillsbury Doughboy. 

This afternoon, when I entered that saved link into the browser, the page could not be found. I wasn't surprised.

I wonder what happened to the person responsible at Legacy.com that had posted that obit. 


When I searched the internet for a Pillsbury Doughboy obituary, I found several of them with variations on the same theme. This is one of them:

Obituary for Pillsbury Dough Boy   

Sad news today, so please join me in remembering yet another great icon of the entertainment community.

The Pillsbury Dough Boy died yesterday of a yeast infection and traumatic complications from repeatedly being poked in his belly during his lifetime. The veteran Pillsbury spokesman was 71. Dough Boy is survived by his wife, Play Dough; three children, John Dough, Jane Dough, and Dill Dough; plus they also had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

Services were held yesterday at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Dough Boy (DB) was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Longtime friend, Aunt Jemima, delivered the eulogy, describing DB as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. DB rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers.

He was not considered a very “smart” cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, but was thought of a roll model for millions. Toward the end, it was thought he would rise again, but alas, he remained unleavened.